Welcome to Windows 7 Forums. Our forum is dedicated to helping you find support and solutions for any problems regarding your Windows 7 PC be it Dell, HP, Acer, Asus or a custom build. We also provide an extensive Windows 7 tutorial section that covers a wide range of tips and tricks.

Windows 7: No bootable device error

I usually fix these things by myself with a little Google magic and my limited knowledge (currently attending PSU for an IST degree). But I can't seem to find the answer to this one, or at least not one that applies to me.

My Mom's laptop suddenly got a "No bootable device" error. I tried using a restore/recovery CD with no solution. I tried using a Windows 7 install CD to just do a clean install but there seems to be no drives. The only drive showing is D: (the CD). Through my Google and forum searching I tried going into command prompt and doing a disk part and select disk 0, there is no such disk. When I list volumes it only shows D:. When I try to "Load Drivers" I get a Boot (X: ) drive. I tried looking through the DriveForce in the System32 folder, but I will be honest and say I do not know what I am looking for.

Edited to add: I think she has a virus. I found out that she had no protection active (hers expired) and I got an email from her with a link to a marketing website that she didn't send. She said the AOL webmail site kept asking her to put her password in and I told her not to as it sounded suspicious. She said she didn't enter her password again but as I stated before, I think she has a virus that caused this.

If it is a virus, it is at the BIOS level. This is rare, but not unheard of. You will need to flash the BIOS to remove a BIOS virus, and you will have to find a BIOS flashing utility for her laptop model through the manufacturer support site, and the BIOS flashing utility must work in DOS mode.

The other possibility is that her hard drive has failed. This behavior is exactly the behavior that happens when a drive either fails or is starting to fail. It is also the same behavior if the hard drive is not connected properly to the motherboard. Try removing the drive from the system and then re-inserting it in the laptop. Follow these steps to remove the drive and re-insert.

Shut down and turn off the computer.

Unplug the AC adapter, then the battery.

Hold down the power button for 30 seconds to close the circuit and drain any residual power left in the system (to prevent any shorts and also reset hardware/software connections with the BIOS).

HDD could've been knocked loose, too. My friend's laptop did the same crap to him, and he came to me to ask about it. We opened up the laptop, and found the HDD was loose, and didn't connect. Try doing what Writh said.

You guys are amazing!! Thank you SO much! I took apart the back and found it under a few doors. It was completely disconnected and the computer starts fine now.

How do you guys know this stuff? I know that seems like a silly question but I am a sophomore now and I am going to be doing this stuff for a living (possibly) eventually. I feel like I should know how to do it.

Thank you SO much again! I would have never thought of the hardware itself, I thought it was all software related.

I actually thought of it because a group of people brought their laptops in to various computer repair places with the hard drive intentionally disconnected to see if the repair places could determine the cause. Turned out, all of the places except one figured it out. The one that didn't wanted to get them to buy a brand new computer because it would be too expensive to repair.

Sophomores can refer to high school (ages 15-18 are in high school, generally sophomores are 16-17 years old) or college (for undergraduates that are going for a 2 year associates or 4 year bachelor's degree. I am pretty sure graduate school for your masters does not have freshman, sophomore, etc.). I am referring to my sophomore (or second) year in college. You can be any age for that. I am 27. I have 2 kids, so I had a late start

No bootable device error

Notebook - No Bootable Device ErrorOk so i have an acer aspire one notebook and one day it was working and the day after when i turned it on it goes to the normal acer loading sign then the screen goes black and makes a beeping noise for about 10 seconds then this error comes up -
Intel UNDI, PXE-2.1 (build 082)
Cpoyright (C)...

BSOD Help and Support

No Bootable device error, MBR messed or missing or a hibernation issueThis is my first Post here, I need some help! I have a Dell M90 with win7 64bit…installed two + years ago…SP1 and current updates as of a 2 months ago.
I have backed up my data consistently, typically once a week to an external drive + BU images, so no worries their but I am unable to...

General Discussion

No Bootable Device Error MessageI have a HP G60 519WM laptop. Windows 7 32 bit. I know it is really old. But I've had it for a while. Recently my computer was running slow so I decided to factory reset it. After doing so I rebooted my computer and got the "no bootable device" error message. I bought a brand new driver and same...

General Discussion

No Bootable device - Insert Boot Disc error.Hello:
I have Windows 7 on a AMD Phenom Machine.
Hard Drive died so I put another one in and restored Windows with Acronis True Image.
When I leave the Windows repair disk in the drive, the restored system starts perfectly, runs perfectly etc. But if I pull that repair disk out of the...

Performance & Maintenance

no bootable device errorwhen i turn on my latpop, i get a black screen that says
"No bootable device found -- Insert boot disk and press any key".
How do i fix this? This is a small laptop with no cd drive, so i wont be able to put a recovery cd in.